3 ms·

Slightly off-topic, but I've got a copy of Knuth's Computer Modern Typefaces (Book E in the Computers And Typesetting series). I don't think many people get to

Slightly off-topic, but I've got a copy of Knuth's Computer Modern Typefaces (Book E in the Computers And Typesetting series). I don't think many people get to see this book. You can see where some of Kunth's time went. Here's a quote from the preface: "Another piece of luck came my way in 1984, when I learned that the original bronze patterns used to make the molds of Monotype 8A were in San Francisco. For years I had been working with indirect and imprecise information about the fonts that had stimulated this work. First I had worked from photographic blowups of letterpress original pages from The Art of Computer Programming; then Richard Southall had prepared enlargements from original proofs he had located in England. At last I found the actual 80-year-old patterns that had generated the metal type. The present owner of these patters, Mr. Othmar Peters, kindly consented to let me borrow them while I was preparing the final draft of Computer Modern, and I learned much by measuring them with calipers."

Tomte 6y ago
You also get to see how "real typefaces" are produced using Metafont (namely, doing outlines and then filling them), which may not be crystal clear when reading the Metafontbook alone. (I also like the book for a much simpler reason: it got me my Knuth cheque)
- daffy 6y ago
  Does this have prose in addition to the source code; or can you get the same information from looking at the code distributed with texlive?
  - Tomte 6y ago
    You're getting an introduction, including an explanation of the parameters: https://www.2uo.de/image2.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image2.jpeg Then short prose every now and then: https://www.2uo.de/image1.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image1.jpeg But it's mostly the listings you can see on CTAN, as well. I actually misremembered and thought there was more explanation in the book. What's really nice is that all glyphs are shown on a grid, next to their programs: https://www.2uo.de/image0.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image0.jpeg
    - daffy 6y ago
      Sounds like it may be worth buying. But I'll see how far I get with the Metafontbook first.
      - dhosek 6y ago
        If you're interested in MF, Volume E is really not optional.
  - Isamu 6y ago
    Volume D is the code, it’s interesting because the literate programming approach where the raw code is transformed into a fully typeset version for printing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming Volume B is the code for TeX.
  - svat 6y ago
    If you just want a quick rough idea of how the book (Volume E) is structured, you could look at the January 1980 report of the same name: http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/80/780/CS-TR-80-780.one.pdf http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/80/780/CS... — think of it as a very early draft where a lot of details (both code and prose) have changed, and the scan online is awful (rotated and low-resolution and somehow actually introduces typos) — but the bulk of the book is like the bulk of this report (two-page spreads with a glyph's definition in code on the right, with the resulting output on the left).

Tomte 6y ago

You also get to see how "real typefaces" are produced using Metafont (namely, doing outlines and then filling them), which may not be crystal clear when reading the Metafontbook alone. (I also like the book for a much simpler reason: it got me my Knuth cheque)

daffy 6y ago
Does this have prose in addition to the source code; or can you get the same information from looking at the code distributed with texlive?
- Tomte 6y ago
  You're getting an introduction, including an explanation of the parameters: https://www.2uo.de/image2.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image2.jpeg Then short prose every now and then: https://www.2uo.de/image1.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image1.jpeg But it's mostly the listings you can see on CTAN, as well. I actually misremembered and thought there was more explanation in the book. What's really nice is that all glyphs are shown on a grid, next to their programs: https://www.2uo.de/image0.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image0.jpeg
  - daffy 6y ago
    Sounds like it may be worth buying. But I'll see how far I get with the Metafontbook first.
    - dhosek 6y ago
      If you're interested in MF, Volume E is really not optional.
- Isamu 6y ago
  Volume D is the code, it’s interesting because the literate programming approach where the raw code is transformed into a fully typeset version for printing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming Volume B is the code for TeX.
- svat 6y ago
  If you just want a quick rough idea of how the book (Volume E) is structured, you could look at the January 1980 report of the same name: http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/80/780/CS-TR-80-780.one.pdf http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/80/780/CS... — think of it as a very early draft where a lot of details (both code and prose) have changed, and the scan online is awful (rotated and low-resolution and somehow actually introduces typos) — but the bulk of the book is like the bulk of this report (two-page spreads with a glyph's definition in code on the right, with the resulting output on the left).